(Covering stories such as the Middle East conflict is a challenge to the BBC's 'neutrality')

By Robert Fisk

"A few weeks ago, a Very Senior Correspondent of the BBC was asked a tricky question.

I will not reveal the identity of this friend of mine, nor the country in which he spoke – He Knoweth Who He Is – but it was his answer that captivated me.

"I recognise this as an issue," he replied....

Note the two words he didn't want to use. Of course, what he should have said was: I know this is a problem. But he couldn't. Because BBC-speak doesn't allow words like problems – because problems have to be solved. And the BBC doesn't solve problems. Because they do not exist. There are only "issues". And issues only have to be "recognised". Thus what my friend really meant was: "I know exactly what you're talking about but I haven't the slightest intention of admitting it, so piss off."....

...But wait. He found, he says, that "lots of people had been thinking deeply about some of the issues". And there are other BBC darling words, too. "The big challenge" is to make sure the media understand the BBC's "strategic direction". And "the challenges of working in the public sector are huge ... I've always been lucky to work with teams that have challenged me."

O Lordy, Lordy, where does this bloody vocabulary come from?.....

But then who wants to talk about anything serious these days? I note an Associated Press dispatch from Jerusalem this week telling us that the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, recently talked to American Jewish leaders about what the reporter Josef Federman called "touchy topics". Whoops! Touchy topics? Well, here goes. Abbas, according to the AP, spoke about "Mideast peace talks, anti-Israeli incitement in the Palestinian media, violence and terrorism and the Holocaust". What on earth is "touchy" about the Jewish Holocaust? Or about "violence"? Or "incitement"? Or "terrorism"?

What all these words – issues, challenges, delivery, success, quality, achievers, touchy topics – have in common is the essential lie: that everything is for the good; that problems, disasters, third-rate work or bloodbaths simply don't exist, or are at best to be regarded as "touchy topics", something we don't need to hear about or for which we should be forewarned......"

"GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya has said that his government would never allow the return of security chaos to the Gaza Strip [Sure! That is why UNRWA summer camps for the children were burned, not once, but twice! Tell us more lies Habila.], adding that the execution of convicted agents and criminals came to preserve the Palestinian society.

Haneyya, addressing a tribal conciliation in Gaza on Friday, said that his government was keen on maintaining social security, noting that it managed to solve numerous complicated cases including murder.

The premier asked all families to put an end to their differences through the courts and concerned parties.

Citizens in Gaza Strip are in need of security and stability after suffering a lot from the previous state of security mess that prevailed in previous years, Haneyya underlined."

"03/07/2010 An international inquiry into the Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla may hurt the Turks – This is the message that US President Barack Obama has conveyed to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish sources told the London-based al-Hayat newspaper.

Saturday's report said Obama told Erdogan that "such an inquiry commission may lead to accusations against several passengers on the Marmara ship, or members of the IHH organization and Turkey must know that its request could turn into a double-edged sword."

Turkish sources told the paper that the meeting between Obama and Erdogan on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Canadapaved the way for the secret meeting between Israel's Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels.

According to the Turkish sources, "Obama conveyed promises and calming messages to Turkey, in an attempt to convince Israel's prime minister, Netanyahu, in their upcoming meeting next Tuesday, to accept the Turkish demands."

The sources said Ben-Eliezer noted that Israel could apologize to the families of some of the activists killed in the flotilla raid, but not to all of them, as some of them were affiliated with Hamas.

The sources added that Ben-Eliezer asked that Turkey give the internal Israeli probe into the raid a chance, or include its report in the international commission's report, which Israel will not officially take part in or work with directly......"

Friday, July 2, 2010

The results of this new poll are a bit surprising, considering the strong endorsement of Turkey by the Arab public lately.

The poll asks:

Do you believe that Israeli-Turkish relations will return to their previous status?

With about 700 responding so far, 42% said yes. This is a high percentage and could reflect the not so firm Turkish response to the attack on the flotilla (and the murder of 9 Turks). It was also probably influenced by the current revelations of a recent meeting between the Turkish foreign minister and the Israeli minister of industry.

"In all regional disputes, big or small, Israel will invariably threaten or implement violence. It is the preferred method of conflict resolution. The recent discovery of natural gas reserves in Lebanese territorial waters, and Israel’s claim to them, is no exception....."

"As General David Petraeus, the mainstream US media's new armored Messiah, takes command in Afghanistan, the myth of his "successful surge" in Iraq could not but linger. Anyone who buys the Pentagon's spin and believes the same conquest will happen in the Pashtun south and southeast of Afghanistan must have smoked Hindu Kush's finest.....

If Petraeus goes "clear, hold and build" COIN in Pashtun lands he is doomed. If Petraeus gets restless and produces a Fallujah in Pashtun lands, he is also doomed (that may be in effect right away, as one of his minions told Fox News that rules of engagement will be more "kinetic" - code for more US firepower and more civilian casualties.) So what's the point of all this upcoming carnage? Well, there are so many - the poppy trade, the "Saudi Arabia of lithium", the ultimate pipe dream known as Trans-Afghan Pipeline, those military bases spying both Russia and China ... So many rats scurrying around the sinking US flotilla in the sand, but what the hell, there's another successful "surge" to sell and the (war) show must go on. "

"We’re in the midst of a spy scare, one of those periodic bouts of paranoia that spreads, like a virus, from Washington on outward. This time, it’s alleged Russian spies, but the scare is already becoming a generalized fear, permeating official Washington and the "mainstream" media like a poisonous fog......

I would submit, based on their pathetic performance, that the Russkies are the very least of our problems. As for the Chinese, they already have their boots on our necks: in any conflict with the US, all they have to do is stop buying our debt and they’ll have won. Why bother stealing our secrets when they can buy them – buy us – without going to the trouble to plant "sleeper cells"? (The likeliest recruits to a Chinese sleeper cell are members of the Congress of the United States, which keeps upping the national debt — and handing Beijing the whip they’ll use if we get too aggressive.) ....."

Speculators set up a casino where the chips were the stomachs of millions. What does it say about our system that we can so casually inflict so much pain?

By Johann HariThe Independent

"By now, you probably think your opinion of Goldman Sachs and its swarm of Wall Street allies has rock-bottomed at raw loathing. You're wrong. There's more. It turns out that the most destructive of all their recent acts has barely been discussed at all. Here's the rest. This is the story of how some of the richest people in the world – Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the traders at Merrill Lynch, and more – have caused the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world.

It starts with an apparent mystery. At the end of 2006, food prices across the world started to rise, suddenly and stratospherically. Within a year, the price of wheat had shot up by 80 per cent, maize by 90 per cent, rice by 320 per cent. In a global jolt of hunger, 200 million people – mostly children – couldn't afford to get food any more, and sank into malnutrition or starvation....

If we don't re-regulate, it is only a matter of time before this all happens again. How many people would it kill next time? The moves to restore the pre-1990s rules on commodities trading have been stunningly sluggish. In the US, the House has passed some regulation, but there are fears that the Senate – drenched in speculator-donations – may dilute it into meaninglessness. The EU is lagging far behind even this, while in Britain, where most of this "trade" takes place, advocacy groups are worried that David Cameron's government will block reform entirely to please his own friends and donors in the City.

Only one force can stop another speculation-starvation-bubble. The decent people in developed countries need to shout louder than the lobbyists from Goldman Sachs....."

"“These are humanitarian, social and ethical duties, and the Lebanese state must assume the responsibility of providing them to our Palestinian brothers and sisters. Lebanon will not dodge these duties, which must be crystal-clear, and not be subject to any misinterpretation. The international community has to bear also the responsibility that our Palestinian guests will have the right to go back to their homeland: Palestine, with Jerusalem as their capital.”Prime Minister Saad Hariri during the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC) meeting at the Grand Serail, June 29, 2010

The Washington DC and Beirut based Palestine Civil Rights Campaign and those in Lebanon and internationally who are working to secure civil rights for Palestinian refugees advocate a rights-based approach based on international legal norms and universal moral and religious teachings. While these arguments are sufficient, it is also worth emphasizing the benefits that the Lebanese economy will reap from access to the Palestinian refugee labor market.

At the time of their exodus, only four years after Lebanon’s independence from the French in 1943, Palestinian assets brought into Lebanon were estimated at four times the value of the Lebanese economy. Ever since, periods of economic expansion have greatly benefited from Palestinian capital being invested in the country.

As it is now, Palestinian refugees contribute massively to the Lebanese economy....."

Note:Kaveh Afrasiabi writes for Asia Times and I have posted many of his articles here on PP.

"The following is a rush transcript of Press TV's exclusive interview with Iranian-American university professor and senior political analyst Kaveh Afrasiabi, who was abused by the police in Cambrige, Massachusetts.

Press TV: Dr. Afrasiabi, first tell us why the police arrested you and what happened on that day?....

And to have all this information and falsehoods circulating about the violent racist behavior by Cambridge police against me is just horrible.

I'm and internationally-recognized author and my forthcoming book is actually about my legal battle with Harvard, 'Looking For Rights At Harvard'.

[The book is about my legal battle against] two Harvard university police officers and its administration at the United State's Supreme Court -- the first ever in the entire history.

And there may be a connection between the Harvard incident and this by Cambridge police. Because they singled me out, put me alone in a van separated from the other cellmates, drove recklessly at full speed, came to a [sudden] full stop with my hands tied behind my back and I had no way of holding on to anything and I went flying into a metal shied and I could've been killed right then and there and maybe that was the intention -- to kill me.

This whole bizarre thing about denying that they arrested me and the censorship by Cambridge newspapers is just awful."

According to Hamas leader Mahmoud al Zahar, there have been 120 rounds of talks on a Shalit deal so far. The movement claims that along the way, two sets of Israeli establishments (under ex-PM Ehud Olmert and then Netanyahu) have spoiled deals - showing they are not really interested in an exchange. But Hamas is in no hurry to resolve this issue and is asking a right-wing government (in trouble internationally and domestically at the moment) to agree to difficult concessions.

For all their criticism, the Israeli public doesn’t blame Netanyahu for Shalit. He was taken on Olmert’s watch and so, whatever happens, he’ll be part of Olmert’s legacy. As such, Netanyahu has little to gain (beyond short term adulation from the family and their supporters) and much to lose from the prisoner trade that he laid out on Thursday.

For that reason, Shalit’s release can only come about as part of a larger deal involving the (actual not partial) lifting of the Gaza siege and perhaps even within the framework of an overall peace initiative. There has to be more at stake in this fight and more fighters need to enter the ring – namely the Americans who so far have insisted on separating the issue of Gaza and Shalit from a larger peace deal. Hamas and Israel will keep sparring, with their German referee in the middle, until someone decides its time for a knockout."

Thursday, July 1, 2010

"In a rare extended interview, we speak to Michael Hastings, whose article in Rolling Stone magazine led to the firing of General Stanley McChrystal. Hastings’ piece quoted McChrystal and his aides making disparaging remarks about top administration officials, and exposed long-standing disagreements between civilian and military officials over the conduct of the war. The Senate confirmed General David Petraues as McChrystal’s replacement on Wednesday, one day after McChrystal announced his retirement from the military on Tuesday after a 34-year career....."

"The removal of General Stanley McChrystal from command provided President Barack Obama with the perfect opportunity to review the entire Afghan war strategy and declare it a failure. That he did not do so means that the war now belongs fully to the president and he, in typical Washington fashion, will insist on something that he can describe as "mission accomplished." The fighting will continue until Washington runs out of money and soldiers and is forced to craft together a phony peace settlement before leaving with its tail between its legs. The whole world knows that United States foreign policy has become little more than a pathetic joke, a fact that is also becoming increasingly clear to many Americans who do not live inside the Washington beltway bubble....

....History teaches that liberties lost can never be regained. We are living in an age where the government can conceal what is doing, where it can imprison anyone indefinitely or strip people of citizenship, where it can kill citizens on suspicion, and where it is increasingly seeking to control the public’s access to independent sources of information. This is a far cry from the Republic that the Founding Fathers envisioned, a monstrous modern corporatist state using all of its resources to maintain a constant state of war overseas and fear at home."

What is being called the great Iraqi oil rush has gained momentum in the wake of BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster

By Patrick Cockburn

"The map of the world's main energy suppliers is about to change as Iraq's oil output quadruples over the next 10 years according to new forecasts. Iraq will eventually displace Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest exporter, experts predict, giving Baghdad [meaning Washington, of course.] crucial influence over the future price of oil....."

Factory protests against rampant exploitation could help shift the Chinese model in a way that would benefit us all

Seumas Milneguardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 June 2010

"Something is stirring in the workshop of the world. For weeks, strikes and protests have been breaking out across the coastal regions which have been the engine of China's emergenceas an economic power and have unleashed an avalanche of bargain-basement consumer goods on the rest of the globe. While trade unions in Europe are taking industrial action against cuts in wages, pensions and jobs, low-paid workers in China have been striking against rampant exploitation, and winning double-digit pay rises.....

It's a powerful challenge to the Washington consensus that has driven economic policy for a generation. A growing Chinese economy also offers a welcome antidote to continued stagnation or recession in the western world, especially if the current switch to consumption continues. Strikes against poverty wages can only help. When Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, hailed Chinese cheap labour as a lever to hold down global labour costs, he was highlighting what has been a burden on workers across the world. Sustainable, growing Chinese living standards should also strengthen the prospects of progressive domestic change. These strikes are good for China and good for the world."

Ten years after Bill Clinton guided failed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the idea of a negotiation on equal terms is now defunct

Ben Whiteguardian.co.uk, Thursday 1 July 2010

".....Israeli and Palestinian leaders will ultimately need to sit down and talk, but it is time for our understanding of how and when to be radically reshaped by Nelson Mandela's famous words: "Only free men can negotiate."

Israeli leaders have no intention of relinquishing control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, nor of recognising fundamental Palestinian rights already spelled out in countless UN resolutions and global treaties. The response of the international community, if it is serious about a sustainable peace, must be enforcement and accountability, not more doomed summits and road maps."

"The former chief executive of a British chemical company faces the prospect of extradition to the US after the firm admitted million-dollar bribes to officials to sell toxic fuel additives to Iraq.

Paul Jennings, until last year chief executive of the Octel chemical works near Ellesmere Port, Merseyside, and his predecessor, Dennis Kerrison, exported tonnes of tetra ethyl lead (TEL), to Iraq. TEL is banned from cars in western countries because of links with brain damage to children. Iraq is believed to be the only country that still adds lead to petrol....

A decade ago, Octel decided to remain the world's only manufacturer of TEL for cars, after it was banned in the US and Europe. They used high profits from non-western countries to diversify into other products and to pay back investors, mainly US hedge funds run by Connecticut billionaire Jeffrey Gendell. According to prosecutors, the strategy included the corrupt blocking of health campaigns....."

"A UK church has unanimously voted to boycott Israeli products in a show of protest against Tel Aviv's illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

The Methodist Church of Britain on Wednesday announced a decision to boycott Israeli-produced goods and services from the West Bank because of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories which "a majority of governments recognize... as illegitimate under international law," The Jerusalem Post reported.

The move came in response to calls from the World Council of Churches, the Palestinian civil society and “a growing number of Jewish organizations in Israel and worldwide,” the church stated at its annual conference in Portsmouth....."

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

"Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, stated that the Palestinian Authority will soon receive 50 Russian armored vehicles that were donated by Russia several years ago but Israel opposed the delivery.

Visiting Ramallah, Lavrov said that the armored vehicles are currently in Jordan and that he hopes they will be transferred to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank in the coming days.

The Russian official visited Egypt and Spain and held talks with leaders of the Quartet Committee for Middle East Peace. The Quartet Committee has representatives from Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.

The vehicles were offered by Russia in 2005 and are reportedly meant to help the P.A. maintain order [Translation:To help the Israeli occupation and to strengthen the colonization of Palestinian land. Thanks Russia; you have now earned credit with the Zionist Lobby in Washington and you can cash it later for something you need. Tfuh on Russia!]......"

"Many angry Americans have begun boycotting BP in retaliation for corporate recklessness relating to the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill. What many don’t know about is BP's role in an entirely different kind of "spill" - the destruction of Iran's democracy more than half a century ago.....

The oil company rebranded itself as British Petroleum, BP Amoco, and then, in 2000, BP. During its decades in Iran, it had operated as it pleased, with little regard for the interests of local people. This corporate tradition has evidently remained strong.

Many Americans are outraged by the relentless images of oil gushing into Gulf waters from the Deepwater Horizon well, and by the corporate recklessness that allowed this spill to happen. Those who know Iranian history have been less surprised. "

".....Rola Badran, organizer and Program Director of the Palestinian Human Rights Organization, explained that "The point of this event is to show Palestinians that we cannot stay waiting in the camps. We have to march and call for our rights."

Badran said that the march was part of ongoing campaign to put pressure not only on the Lebanese government, but also on the international community to recognize the Palestinian refugees' right of return.

The issue of granting rights to Palestinians refugees has always been controversial in Lebanon due to the uneasy sectarian balance established in the country's constitution. Christian politicians recently rejected four draft laws in the Lebanese Parliament that would have granted Palestinians the right to work and own property. Christian groups insist that respecting Palestinians' basic rights would lead to their naturalization as Lebanese citizens and tilt the sectarian balance in favor of Sunni Muslims. Palestinian groups have long refuted this, and state that it isn't Lebanese citizenship they want, only their human rights and to return to Palestine.

"We're not Sunni Palestinians, we are Palestinians," Badran said. "We are humans, we are here, we need to enjoy our dignity. That is the first step to go back to Palestine.""

"BRUSSELS, Jun 30, 2010 (IPS) - Talks aimed at reaching an intelligence-sharing agreement between the European Union and Israel have skirted around the location of Israel's national police headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.

In 2005, the EU decided that Europol, its law enforcement office, should negotiate a formal cooperation agreement with Israel. Although Europol stated last year that a draft accord had been completed, it has now acknowledged that the question of Israeli police basing their headquarters on Palestinian land has not been properly addressed......"

"Israel’s botched raid against the Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla on May 31 is the latest sign that Israel is on a disastrous course that it seems incapable of reversing. The attack also highlights the extent to which Israel has become a strategic liability for the United States. This situation is likely to get worse over time, which will cause major problems for Americans who have a deep attachment to the Jewish state.

The bungled assault on the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in the flotilla, shows once again that Israel is addicted to using military force yet unable to do so effectively. One would think that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would improve over time from all the practice. Instead, it has become the gang that cannot shoot straight.... "

".....This Russian “spy” story is so flaky, so Bizarro World-ish, so obviously a con job that, really, no commentary is required: all one has to do is report the facts of the “case” to see that there is no case, or, as Gertrude Stein said of her home town of Oakland, “no there there.”

So what’s the point? Who knows? There are plenty of people in the US government who would look favorably on a souring of US-Russian relations. Perhaps the Obama administration is retaliating for Moscow’s lack of cooperation with the Iranian sanctions. Or maybe the idea is to divert attention away from the spy networks that really matter ….

The more we learn about the cabal that didn’t steal a single secret, the louder the alarm on your BS-ometer will ring – that is, if you’re paying attention to the upshot of this case at all. Most people won’t, of course; they’ll just remember the headlines about “Russian spies” and retain a general impression of Russian malevolence – and that’s the whole point. That’s what propaganda – good propaganda – accomplishes. So we can say, with this little operation: Mission accomplished! "

In failing to address the problem of Israel and its hegemonic designs, the two-state solution will never be a path to lasting peace

By Ghada Karmi(professor at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter)Al-Ahram Weekly

"Reports of Israel's death -- to paraphrase Mark Twain -- are much exaggerated, though in the current climate of opinion it might be tempting to think otherwise. There is no doubt that Israel's standing has taken a severe battering in the last 18 months, compounded by the events at the end of May. Israel's savage assault on Gaza between the end of 2008 and early 2009, with its devastating results for Gazans, who still suffer the consequences today, had a powerful impact on international public opinion. Israel's latest assault, on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on 31 May, killing at least nine Turkish humanitarian activists, has been a dramatic escalation. The international climate of opinion has never been so hostile towards Israel. If anyone doubts this, they need only observe the frantic propaganda effort that Israel mounted in the wake of the attack in order to undo the damage. Its announcement this week of a partial ease of the blockade on Gaza is an admission of its failure to stem the tide of criticism....

The flotilla assaults and the one-state solution conference were no mere coincidence. They are linked. For the key to ending Israel's recurrent transgressions is to alter its fundamental nature from an exclusivist, intolerant entity for Jews dedicated to maintaining its hegemony by violence, to a pluralist, inclusive society for all. This vision, derided by those too weary or unimaginative to change course, or who have vested interests in the status quo, is no pipedream. But it will not happen through the action of governments which have let the Palestinians down repeatedly, but when enough people of goodwill and conscience join together to build that new state. And it has already started. What's better: a hegemonic Israel, rampaging out of control in a volatile region, or a peaceful state built on cooperation and coexistence in one, un-partitioned land between former enemies?"

A bill seeking to outlaw boycotts of Israeli institutions and products – including in settlements – is diplomatically explosive

Miri Weingartenguardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 June 2010

"A new "anti-boycott bill", the third in a series of proposed laws that aim to curtail the ability of civil society to criticise Israeli government policy, will punish Israelis or foreign nationals who initiate or promote a boycott of Israel.

The bill not only prohibits boycotts of legal Israeli institutions, but also of settlement activities and products. It seeks to impose fines on Israelis who "promote boycotts" and transfer the fines to boycotted organisations.

It will impose a 10-year entry ban on foreign residents engaging in boycotts, and forbid them to carry out any economic activities in Israel.....

In court, the EU advocate-general was even clearer. He said that as a matter of international law, the borders of Israel are defined by the 1947 partition plan for Palestine, and any territories outside the 1947 borders do not form part of the territory of Israelfor purposes of the association agreement.

If the bill passes into law, the EU would qualify as a "promoter of boycott", whereas Israel could be seen to be breaking the terms of the association agreement. The implications of this could be explosive."

"Children living in the poorest parts of the West Bank face significantly worse conditions than their counterparts in Gaza, a study conducted by an international youth charity has found.

The report by Save the Children UK, due to be released on Wednesday, says that families forced from their homes in the West Bank are suffering the effects of grinding poverty, often lacking food, medicine and humanitarian assistance.

The European Commission funded study found that in "Area C"- the 60 per cent of the West Bank under direct Israeli control - the poorest sections of society are suffering disproportionately because basic infrastructure is not being repaired due to Israel's refusal to approve the work.

Homes, schools, drainage systems and roads are in urgent need of repair, but instead of work being allowed, families are being forced to live in tents and do not have access to clean water....."

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Israel Medical Association charged Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman on Sunday with delaying the transfer of ministry budgets to Nahariya’s state-owned Western Galilee Hospital because its director-general is an Israeli Arab.

Litzman’s recent statements in the Knesset about the hospital “raise the smell of racism,” said IMA chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman.

The IMA chairman based his statement on protocols from the Knesset in which Litzman made accusations against Dr. Mas’ad Barhoom, the only Arab director of a government hospital. The deputy minister claimed Barhoom “doesn’t allow his [Jewish] employees to pray” during their work in the hospital and pointedly noted that Barhoom “isn’t a Jew,” Eidelman added.

"The Obama administration has been rapidly expanding its offensive capacityin the African island of Diego Garcia, claimed by Britain, which had expelled the population so that the US could build the massive base it uses for attacking the Middle East and Central Asia. The Navy reports sending a submarine tender to the island to service nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines with Tomahawk missiles, which can carry nuclear warheads. Each submarine is reported to have the striking power of a typical carrier battle group. According to a US Navy cargo manifest obtained by the Sunday Herald (Glasgow), the substantial military equipment Obama has dispatched includes 387 “bunker busters” used for blasting hardened underground structures. Planning for these “massive ordnance penetrators,” the most powerful bombs in the arsenal short of nuclear weapons, was initiated in the Bush administration, but languished. On taking office, Obama immediately accelerated the plans, and they are to be deployed several years ahead of schedule, aiming specifically at Iran.

“They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran,” according to Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London. “US bombers and long range missiles are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours,” he said. “The firepower of US forces has quadrupled since 2003,” accelerating under Obama.

The Arab press reports that an American fleet (with an Israeli vessel) passed through the Suez Canal on the way to the Persian Gulf, where its task is “to implement the sanctions against Iran and supervise the ships going to and from Iran.” British and Israeli media report that Saudi Arabia is providing a corridor for Israeli bombing of Iran (denied by Saudi Arabia). On his return from Afghanistan to reassure NATO allies that the US will stay the course after the replacement of General McChrystal by his superior, General Petraeus, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen visited Israel to meet Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and senior Israeli military staff along with intelligence and planning units, continuing the annual strategic dialogue between Israel and the U.S. in Tel Aviv. The meeting focused “on the preparation by both Israel and the U.S. for the possibility of a nuclear capable Iran,” according to Haaretz, which reports further that Mullen emphasized that “I always try to see challenges from Israeli perspective.” Mullen and Ashkenazi are in regular contact on a secure line....."

"Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, has warned that Washington’s plan to begin handing over responsibility to national forces in Afghanistan in July next year “provides a mechanism for failure”.

In an interview with the Financial Times after President Barack Obama’s decision to remove General Stanley McChrystal as commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, Mr Kissinger said the public “must be prepared for a long struggle” in what is already the US’s longest war......

Mr Kissinger added that fighting the Taliban until it was reduced to impotence "would take more timethan the American political system would permit".... "

"It’s been a week since Rolling Stone published its article on General Stanley McChrystal that eventually led to him being fired by President Obama. Since the article came out, Rolling Stone and the reporter who broke the story, Michael Hastings, have come under attack in the mainstream media for violating the so-called "ground rules" of journalism. But the investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker John Pilger says Hastings was simply doing what all true journalists need to do......"

"Has Gaza's humanitarian disaster become a political crisis for Egypt? On Monday's Riz Khan we will look at Egypt's policies towards Gaza and whether or not its traditional leadership role is being eclipsed as a result."

"Israeli human-rights groups and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, have condemned a decision by Israel to expel four Palestinian politicians from East Jerusalem by the end of this week.

The Israeli government revoked their residency rights in Jerusalem a few weeks ago....

The loss of residency is seen by the Palestinians as part of a wider Israeli strategy to weaken their hold on East Jerusalem and its holy sites.

Israel has built sections of its separation wall through Palestinian neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, cutting off some 60,000 residents from their city.

It has also shut down all Palestinian political institutions in Jerusalem associated with the Palestinian national movements, and banned events – including a literature festival last year – that it claims are financed with PA money.....

In a related move, Israeli officials have also been threatening to revoke the citizenship of Palestinian leaders inside Israel, including Haneen Zoubi, the Israeli MP who was onboard last month’s aid flottilla to Gaza that Israeli commandos attacked, killing nine passengers."

"As Gen. David Petraeus prepares for his next command, his supporters are hoping he can rescue a failing war for the second time in just a few years. But both the dire state of the war effort in Afghanistan and his approach to taking command in Iraq in early 2007 suggest that Petraeus will not try to replicate an apparent -- and temporary -- success that he knows was at least in part the result of fortuitous circumstances in Iraq. Instead he will maneuver to avoid having to go down with what increasingly appears to be a failed counterinsurgency war.....The coming months will test Petraeus's ability to navigate the treacherous politics of command of a war that can be managed only as a bloody stalemate at best. Salvaging the war could now be beyond his means, but the general may yet find a way to save his own reputation."

"To say that Palestinian Murad Al-Khalaf's roots are in Jerusalem is a serious understatement. His family lived in the Baka district of West Jerusalem until they were forced to leave in the war of 1948. They have since lived – and live – in the inner East Jerusalem district of Ras al-Amud. His family doctor father's clinic in East Jerusalem's main street of Salahadin is opposite three shops owned by each of his uncles. One of his brothers, also a doctor, works at one of Jerusalem's two main (Israeli) hospitals, the Shaare Zedek Medical Centre. The city is, in short, his home.

But when the next hearing of a case of fundamental importance to the future of this super-qualified young man takes place in the Jerusalem District Court today, he won't be there. At the age of 33, he has suddenly become, to use his own word, "stateless". His only "crime" has been to spend several years in the US doing an electrical engineering PhD, completing post-doctoral research funded by a division of the US Army, acquiring high-tech work experience with the sole purpose of bettering his future career prospects in the Holy Land, and being a little homesick.

Yet in 2008 the young Dr Abu-Khalaf became a statistic, one of a record 4,577 Palestinian residents to have their Israeli-conferred status as a resident of East Jerusalem revoked in that year and with it the right to live permanently or work in either Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories. It is this revocation which is being challenged in court on his behalf by the Israeli human rights lawyer Leah Tsemel today...."

"Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen warns that any military action against Iran would be "incredibly destabilizing" to the region.

The US and Israel understand that the use of force against Iran would be "incredibly destabilizing," Mullen said addressing the Aspen Security Forum on Monday.

The top US military official, however, renewed allegations that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of peaceful nuclear work and said that that there is "no reason to trust" Iran.

According to Mullen, who had previously threatened Tehran with military options, Iran's access to nuclear weapons would be "incredibly dangerous" for the Islamic Republic.

The top US commander also expressed skepticism that the exertion of sanctions would be an effective tool to make Iran relinquish its nuclear activities.

Mullen's statements came in the wake of the estimations of CIA Director Leon Panetta who said on Sunday that he "thinks" Iran was in possession of enough low-enriched uranium to produce two atomic weapons within two years....."

"....Following the outrage over Israel's killing of activists aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters on May 31, the intensified focus on Shalit is Israel's bid to deflect criticism of its unrelenting imprisonment of more than 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip, half of whom are children who, unlike Shalit, remain anonymous to world media and leaders.

But does Israel have a point? Is Hamas violating Shalit's most basic rights by denying the ICRC direct access to him, by refusing family contact, and even by keeping him captive in the first place?.....

Under Article 125 of this convention, the ICRC's ability to visit a POW is not unconditional but, "subject to the measures which the detaining powers may consider essential to ensure their security or to meet any other reasonable need ...."

As the ICRC's Mégevand-Roggo points out, Hamas, the detaining power in this case, "has said publicly that security considerations prevented it from allowing the ICRC to visit Shalit".

From Hamas' perspective, the risk of allowing a visit is obvious: revealing the location of the POW would run the risk of an Israeli military attack either to attempt to rescue him, or to harm Hamas' military structures and personnel.....

Hamas, conceivably, could be in violation of its obligations if it revealed Shalit's location to facilitate an ICRC visit and thus knowingly exposed him to the danger of an armed Israeli attack.

The only situation in which it might be safe for Hamas to consider allowing a visit to Shalit is if Israel gave an unambiguous public undertaking that it would never attempt a military rescue.

Since that is unlikely, and could probably not be trusted anyway, an ICRC visit should not be expected any time soon.....

The tragedy of the Shalit case is not just that Israel is using it to divert attention from the collective punishment of Palestinians, but that Shalit could already have been home long ago if Israel's leaders had not reneged on the German-brokered deal.

It seems that for the Israeli government Shalit is more useful for his propaganda value as a captive...."

"Sasha Polakow-Suransky, a senior editor at Foreign Affairs, poured through 7,000 pages of never-before-seen classified South African documents while researching his book, Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa.

In it, he relays the minutes and details of conversations between top level officials on both sides that shed light on the extent and nature of Israel's cooperation with and enablement of South Africa's Apartheid regime, both in military and non-military matters.

It was a relationship that benefited both sides: South Africa acquired vital components from Israel to help advance its nuclear programme, while sharing their knowledge and components with Israel as it pursued its own nuclear ambitions.

Al Jazeera talked to Sasha Polakow-Suransky about his book.

Al Jazeera: There are several other books on the subject of Israeli-South African arms cooperation. How is yours different?

Polakow-Suransky: It's the first book based on primary source material from either country's archive.

Those archives also include a lot of Israeli documents and interviews with very high level people on both sides, not just diplomats but also generals who are retired from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) or from the South African Defense Force (SADF). ..... "

Monday, June 28, 2010

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Ten families in the Jordan Valley were handed home demolition orders on Sunday and given 24 hours to evacuate their lands.Most of the homes to be demolished belong to the Daraghmah and Al-Makahmreh families, who say they have documents proving their ownership of the land filed with Israel's Land Registry.The families said they had been issued demolition orders before, however this was the first time they had been given a 24-hour notice.A spokesman from the Israeli Civil Administration office said the orders were given because the homes are in a "fire zone", putting the residents "at risk." [There is nothing more barbaric and Israel is the world leader in barbarism and collective punishment. If I was an Israeli I will set myself on fire in protest of my country and culture that condones such barbarism and inhumane actions ]